Our School

Letter from the Principal

Hello Mill Park Families!

It was so fun to see you all at our annual Family Picnic on Friday! I love our Mill Park community. Thanks to our wonderful teachers for staying late to help with this event. 

I wanted to touch base on a few things before the end of the year. It’s busy!

Important Dates

Wednesday, June 7th – Preschool End-of-Year Celebration in Cafeteria from 2:15 PM – 3:30 PM

Friday, June 9th – No School 
On this day, teachers will be learning about our New Math Curriculum for next year called iReady This is also a Parent Communication Day. Please reach out to your child’s teacher if you have any lingering questions or concerns. 

Monday, June 12th – Our Last Student of the Week Announced
If you haven’t liked our Mill Park Facebook, do it today. We post our Weekly Students of the Week there along with events, photos and updates. 

Wednesday, June 14th – Last Day of school for PRESCHOOL only. 

Thursday, June 15th – Kindergarten and 5th Grade Celebrations
Kindergarten Graduation in Cafeteria from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
5th Grade Promotion in Cafeteria from 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM 

Friday, June 16th – Last HALF Day of school and EARLY DISMISSAL at 11:30 AM
This day will be a field day.

Preschool Interest Form and Kindergarten Registration Open Now! 

Register for Kindergarten here
Submit a Preschool Interest form here
Preschool WILL fill up. Submit the form today to make sure you get in.

2023 – 2024 Mill Park Goals 

Last November and December, we launched our fifth annual YouthTruth survey in partnership with YouthTruth, a national nonprofit that helps districts improve their school climate and culture.  We heard from you, our students and families, about how we’re doing and how we can improve.  I wanted to sincerely thank you again for your participation.  

We have explored the data and are working to strategically use the feedback to improve our school.  We gathered anonymous feedback from 50% of our family members and 85% of our students in grades 3-5 (elementary only).  The purpose of this letter is to let you know what we are doing with the survey results.  

As a way to improve our school, we shared with you earlier in the month that we are focusing on two goals: 

Goal #1 – Increase our percentage of students who answer that students are friendly to them “very often” from 47% to 52%. The Typical Youth Truth school was at 52%. 

Here is out action plan to improve in this area: 

• We established a 23-24 School Culture Team of teachers from grades Preschool-5 to help implement ways to improve student-to-student friendliness.
• We changed one of our school expectations from “Be respectful” to “Be Kind” for next year. We will teach how to be kind in each area of the school. We will have lessons on what kindness means and reinforce that with Paw Tickets. 
• We established a 4th and 5th grade Anti-Bullying club that meets weekly with the principal. This will continue next year to create a student-led team of Anti-Bullying student leaders.

Goal #2 – Increase the percentage of students who think students behave in class “very often” from 19% to 23%. Typical 2022 Youth Truth school is 19%. Typical DDSD school is 23%. 

 We are looking to improve our school by: 

• Establishing a 23-24 School Culture Team of teachers from grades Preschool-5 to help implement ways to improve our school-wide behavior systems. For example, teachers will be improving our behavior systems like Paw Tickets, class circles, Tokens, behavior plans and student-to-student positive interaction. 
• We will continue to refine our Regulation Room where students go to help themselves calm down, regulate, and re-enter the classroom ready to learn. This last year, we served over 40 kids in this room. 

Together, we are ensuring that all 491 students at Mill Park are inspired and challenged to learn, grow and thrive to their fullest potential. I truly believe that our ability to be effective is only as great as our ability to give and receive feedback.  Again, thank you for engaging in this feedback process with us as we can’t do it without you!  We look forward to communicating with you the progress we are making in these focus areas and action steps next fall.  
As always, please reach out if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions. 

Respectfully,
Heather Craig
heather_craig@ddsd40.org

Bus Information

• You can look up bus information here.
• Students will receive bus passes in mid-October to attach to their backpacks.
• If you have any questions about bus routes and schedules, call the Bus Garage at (503) 256-6526. 

Kindergarten Registration 

• If you or someone you know has a student living in the Mill Park area who will be 5 by September 1st, you can register for kindergarten here.

Preschool Enrollment

• We are accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year! Find all the information to apply for preschool here.
• Families must live in the Mill Park catchment and have an income of 200% or more below the federal poverty level. 
• Priority goes to 4-year olds.

Other Important Information

• School is from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The tardy bell rings at 9:15 AM. 
• Wednesdays are Late Start – School starts at 10:00 am. The Wednesday tardy bell rings at 10:15 AM. 
• Masks are currently optional. Rapid Covid tests are free and available if you’d ever like your child to take one. You will just need to fill out a consent form in the office for the nose swab. You will get results in 15 minutes. 
• Call the office if your child is going to be absent 503-256-6507. We appreciate you keeping us informed. If your child is going home a different way than they typically do, send a note or call us. Otherwise, we will send them home as usual. 
• Breakfast is FREE and served at school everyday.  
• Lunch is FREE! You can also bring lunch from home if you choose. 
• If you pick up your child, please park and walk to their door. Driving through the bus loop causes problems for our buses, and it interferes with arrival and dismissal. 
• There is no supply fee this year! We already bought all of the kids’ supplies for them. 
• Kindergarten snack fee is $15. We always accept snack donations as well. 
• We are hiring teacher assistants and other support staff. We welcome family members of students and our Mill Park community to apply. If you want to apply to be a part of our team, see the Mill Park openings here.

Go Panthers!

Heather Craig
Principal of Mill Park Elementary
heather_craig@ddsd40.org
503-256-6507